Writing about Primal Scream is a chore. For one thing, they’re a Glasgow band who’ve done pretty much anything and everything to make their reputation, one that’s schizoid to say the least.
After leaving The Jesus and Mary Chain to make Scream a full-throttle effort, Bobby Gillespie and band began a series of post-punk stab’s at mid-’80’s stardom, hitting on a loud, Stones-Stooges kind of thing.
Frontman Gillespie has real swagger, practiced or not. Yes, he’s a rock star—a dime a dozen, right? ‘Cept they ain’t a dime a dozen, some got talent, a voice, somethin’ to say.
Back to the buildup … the band sure had a few weird producers who got inside people’s heads. The album Screamadelica came out in ’91, had big club hits, ’60s Peter Fonda nods, etc. It bent lots of ears, I guess. Hell, I wasn’t around, but yeah, I get it.
Could be there was vice involved. But a couple loud-ass records more than an almost perfect side; and Euro movie shorts with strange soul—not T.S.O.P. —and it swings backwards like Vanishing Point, damn good stuff.
Now 11 records on in 2016, Primal’s The Chaosmosis is a big release in the hour of the locust, yet … the album cover is that slightly off Gillespie thing, he’s still here man. It shows slender bars of I.B.M. colors, the title, and Gillespie in a what appears to be a coon-skinned cap, Daniel Boone shit—er, Fess Parker Jr. actually—the actor who sold me Boone every week in the late ’60’s. He ain’t around for this but I push my scratched glasses up and I swear it’s him.
The three-minute “I Can Change” falsetto, on key, with Casio’s on chorus, 4/4 groove, nice sound, Euro rock star. This record as a whole, spotty, but it’s hard to deny the love. ‘Cause you’d be insane to do it otherwise.
My light shines on … Ha!
This article appears in Feb 9-15, 2017.